Teacher Law Has Officials Wincing

Nearly 500 classes at Palm Beach County schools are taught by teachers not trained in those subjects.

It's a nationwide phenomenon, most prevalent in poor schools and in science, math and special-education classrooms.

The sweeping education law recently signed by President Bush aims to do something about it. The law requires the nation's poorest schools to make sure by next school year all teachers in programs receiving special federal money teach only subjects in which they are certified.

That means instructors must have successfully completed an academic major, a graduate degree, coursework equivalent to an undergraduate academic major, or advanced certification in each subject they teach.

The new law also requires each state government to submit a plan to make sure all teachers only teach subjects in which they have expertise by the end of the 2005-2006 school year.

"What the Legislature says, and what we say, is teachers should be teaching the subject for which they are trained," said Janet Bass, spokeswoman for the American Federation of Teachers, a nationwide union.

"It just makes common sense that a teacher who hasn't been trained to teach math, a P.E. teacher, for example, is not going to make the best math teacher."

But many educators say the goals will be difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. There are too few math, science and special education teachers and teachers for students who are learning English and speak another language.

Those classes must be taught by someone, so districts resort to teachers who are certified in other subjects.

"In light of the difficulty we have in getting good teachers, I don't think it's realistic," Glenn Heyward, principal of Santaluces High School, said of the new law. Five teachers at his Lantana school are teaching out-of-field.

By Florida law, parents must be notified when their children have an out of-field teacher, and Heyward says he never gets complaints.

He and other principals say that some teachers who lack certification in a subject are just as good at teaching it as teachers with certification.

Olympic Heights High School algebra teacher Julie Clark is certified in English, but Principal Fran Giblin had no English vacancies. He was impressed by her and saw enough math in her background to offer her a job.

"She is one of my best teachers," he said. "The kids enjoy her, and she works with them really well."

Clark said she wouldn't teach any subject she didn't feel comfortable with, but she has what it takes to teach math. Math has always been one of her strengths, she said.

"I have a weird sort of passion for the logical way of thinking that it gives you," she said.

Clark had a business minor in college and took pre-calculus and statistics classes.

She is working on her math certification and plans to have it by the end of next school year.

Current state law says out-of-field teachers must complete six hours of study toward certification each year until they are certified.

The law doesn't make sense to Clark. She thinks teachers may be qualified to teach subjects in which they are not certified, and principals must make decisions on an individual basis.

"Just because somebody doesn't have a piece of paper that says, `You can teach math,' doesn't mean they can't relate to and educate the students," she said.

Schools most apt to have out-of-field teachers are those that find it hard to attract or keep any kind of teacher -- schools where students don't do well academically and those in poor areas.

At Pine Grove School of the Arts, students are poor enough to qualify for Title I funds and many are still learning English. Principal Janice Cover will have to make sure all her teachers are certified for the subjects they teach by next year.

Four of her teachers are out-of-field. Three of them lack certification to teach English for Speakers of Other Languages, but have some students with limited English proficiency in their classrooms.

The problem for Cover is schools like hers often have a high teacher turnover rate.

"We will constantly be trying to find certified teachers," she said.

Palm Beach County schools' chief personnel officer, Marcia Andrews, said school districts must work more closely with local universities.

Andrews would like all elementary school teachers to also be certified in special education. Across Florida, there's a glut in elementary education majors, she said. With special education certification, they could be put to good use. Lots of states have similar programs, she said.

The Palm Beach County district has begun to work with local colleges on new certification routes which allow certified teachers to quickly earn new certifications in other subjects, she said.

The district has also stepped up international recruiting. Competition is tight among Florida and U.S. school districts for the limited number of teachers certified in shortage subjects, Andrews said.

Schools out of compliance with the law won't lose federal funding, but the government will start telling them how to spend some of it, said David Schnittger, spokesman for the House Education & the Workforce Committee.

Michael Allen, the Education Commission of the States' program director for teaching quality, said more details about the law will be known after the federal Education Department makes related rules, expected in February.

Kellie Patrick can be reached at kpatrick@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6629.